Burnout, stress and drinking in the NHS

‘Persistent stress will eventually distort how we see ourselves, our patients, and our working world.’
Photograph: Alamy

Your article (Oncologists suffer alarming rates of burnout and stress, research finds, 17 February) ought not to surprise us. Nor is burnout confined to hard-pressed specialists: it is widespread at every level of practice and even among medical students. Doctors expect a lot of themselves, but if demands pile up and become unrelenting, the ability to adapt well has neurobiological limits. Neuroscience shows that intimate contact with suffering is physically and emotionally demanding, and that persistent stress will eventually distort how we see ourselves, our patients, and our working world. Long before stress makes us ill, it makes us dull and unfriendly. A cascade of stress responses increases error-rates, heightens irritability, engenders disengagement, and fuels the downward spiral into burnout. Yet there is evidence for an upward spiral, too: empathic doctors are safer, more effective and happier in their work. So if we want our doctors to flourish individually and professionally in these challenging times, certain human needs should be non-negotiable. Perhaps the solution is as basic as providing a little time for reflection and recovery; time that has been whittled away wherever NHS organisations lack the resources to cope with the ever-increasing demands they face.Professor David Peters (director), Professor George Lewith, Dr Chris Manning and Professor Chantal SimonWestminster Centre for Resilience, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Westminster

• It has long been unacceptable and a disciplinary issue for an NHS worker to drink at lunchtime before working because of the possible impact on patient care. But it appears to be socially acceptable (‘Drinking is how the market works’ – Lloyd’s lunchtime ban falls flat in City, 18 February) for bankers and financial services staff to be drunk in charge of our investments, pensions and savings. The NHS will be there to pick them up even if they cause austerity, reducing funding available for the NHS.Chris JeffriesStockport